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Mapping global sustainability report scoring: a detailed analysis of Europe and Asia

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Abstract

This study maps the General Reporting Initiative (GRI) relations for a set of global enterprises. Enterprise interrelationships are built using the Mutual Information (MI) of the data reported by enterprises. From the MI topology, we describe interrelationships among the enterprises using chord diagrams to represent the inter- and intra-connectivity between geographical regions and economic sectors globally , by continent and country. Detailed maps are presented for European and Asian regions/sectors, including the relationship between Europe and Asia’s top reporting countries. Our findings reinforce previous research regarding the role of Europe as a driver of sustainability and its influence worldwide. We also determined that Spain is a major player in Europe and that Northern Europe does not have the assumed leading role mentioned in related studies. Eastern Asia is, by far, the leader of the region, and the GRI maps demonstrate the preponderant role of China in the region and the minimal role of India. MI topology maps outline the behavior of the economic sectors, for all the studied regions. Furthermore, a measure that relates the inter- to intra-connections is presented to describe the internal an external relationships among regions/sectors.

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Acknowledgements

This work has been funded by UNEMI 2015CONVP01-001 research grant and DITC UDLA.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. FICA, Universidad de las Américas, Quito, Ecuador

    Mario González

  2. FACI, Universidad Estatal de Milagro, Guayas, Ecuador

    Mario González

  3. FCEE, Universidad Autónoma de Madrid, 28049, Madrid, Spain

    María del Mar Alonso-Almeida

  4. Escuela Politécnica Superior, Universidad Autónoma de Madrid, 28049, Madrid, Spain

    David Dominguez

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  1. Mario González
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  2. María del Mar Alonso-Almeida
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  3. David Dominguez
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Correspondence to Mario González.

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González, M., Alonso-Almeida, M.M. & Dominguez, D. Mapping global sustainability report scoring: a detailed analysis of Europe and Asia. Qual Quant 52, 1041–1055 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11135-017-0502-y

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